The Question of Divorce – Sunday, August 5, 1951
There is a problem perennially before us, acute and increasing. No matter how widely differing may be the laws and leanings toward divorce, we must admit that in our time there has been an alarming laxity of attitude toward broken marriages, broken homes, broken families.
Perhaps most men would be willing to concede that there are some serious causes which seem to suggest that people who have once been wedded go their separate ways. But it must also be admitted that to the serious causes there have been added many superficial causes which cater to the quick changes of mind and of heart of those who too lightly consider the obligations and privileges of marriage.
Often the person who seeks divorce as the way out, has supposed that others who are married do not have adjustments to make or compromises of personal privilege. But never would we find a man and a woman whose thoughts and whose preferences were so alike as to require that neither of them give up anything for the privilege of pursuing life together.
Too many who request a termination of their marital vows imagine that their errors of understanding and deficiencies of wisdom would, with someone else, unquestionably solve themselves. But those who cannot make their peace with one partner in marriage have no positive assurance that they can make their peace with another, because often those who seek separation suppose that others are wholly the cause of contention, whereas they themselves may be at least in part responsible.
Admittedly there may be many exceptions to all these generalizations, but marriage is more than a social convention, more than a personal privilege, more than a legal contract. It is a solemn and sacred covenant which affects not only the lives of two people, but also the whole social pattern of the present, and the lives of the generation to come.
Personal happiness, the strength of a nation, and the stability of society itself depend upon the integrity of home and family which easy divorce tends to undermine without putting anything in its place. These and many other solemn considerations should precede the making of a marriage and should deter the decision to divorce.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, August 5, 1951, 11:00 to 11:30 a.m., Eastern Time. Copyright, 1951
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August 5, 1951
Broadcast Number 1,146